Visiting old friends

[The Warthog]

As I haven't spent a lot of time outside this winter, I took the time to have a good look at M42 last night, as Orion is getting more and more westward. I cranked up the power all the way to 82x, and was able to observe filamentary structure in the nebula, and differentiate the colours and brightnesses of the stars in the trapezium. I also stopped to pay homage to the Running Man, and swept up the belt of Orion to Mintaka, which is an easy split, and always makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

The sky was very dark, as skies around here go, and I was able to see a bit more than usual. I could see all the major stars in Canis Major, instead of just Sirius, but the sky got a little hazy towards 9:30, and the LP became more of a factor. Even so, I couldn't see a lot of extra stars even in the scope, although the belt region was well-populated. It was about 5º. so not too cold, and not windy. I managed to enjoy a nice cuban cigar while I was observing, too. There wasn't a lot of twinkling going on, so the observing was about as good as it ever gets in my back yard. The more I think about it, the more I want a decent computerized mount. This would make it easier to find stuff without reference stars to work from.

After that, it was on to Mars.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Call me sentimental but i always love it when a person refers to Orion,M42 as an "old friend".

It really is a shame that he vanishes from our skies during the summer but it makes our meeting again in the winter all the more special.